The Rack Pack

In the 1970's the BBC show Pot Black started to create some TV personalities like Ray Rearden and Dennis Taylor. Who would have thought that a program about two men taking turns to hit balls with sticks would be popular but it took off. Pretty soon the world championship snooker tournament was being televised. Millions of viewers proved they had the desire and stamina to watch games that lasted hours, interest in the players grew and the prize money rocketed.

The Rack Pack documents snooker's rise in popularity and how it alternatively made and broke two people. It focuses on Alex Higgins and Steve Davis. We see one personality being created from almost a blank canvas. On the other hand we see a dynamic personality destroyed by inner demons, be repaired and then self destruct.

In parts this film is funny, sad, informative and made me reflect on the need for identifiable personalities in sport. Do we need "bad" boys in our viewing before we really engage? At 88 minutes this film isn't as long as some snooker frames and is well worth your time.

The Rack Pack is right up my street. I was big into snooker in the 80's and 90's . The time when the sport was massive and it had some larger than life personalities. None larger than the focus of this film Alex "Hurricane Higgins" Higgins. I never liked Higgins very much back then because being from Plumstead I was a big Davis fan . This BBC film doesn't sugar coat Higgins at all. it's quite brutal in it's portrayal and because of that I have to compliment the director Brian Welsh . Probably the most impressive thing about this is the casting. Luke Treadaway is great as Higgins ( the accent strays a little at times) as is Will Merrick as Steve Davis but the inspirational piece of casting is Kevin Bishop as Barry Hearn. Bishop got Hearn down to a T. I absolutely loved this film and if the BBC keep producing dramas like this they can have no complaints from me about the licence fee.

From Treadaway's accent and mannerisms, to the clever interposition of excerpts of TV commentary from those early 1980s matches.. this film is (like the Steve Davis era it portrays) universally professional.

The characters are spot on, the emotional story played with respect, but without deference and above all (in capturing the effectiveness of this piece) the snooker sequences are brilliant! If you go onto Youtube and watch Higgins' 1982 Semi-Final "break of the tournament", then straight after you watch Treadaway jerking and swaying to the same beat you will see what I mean. How on this planet they recreated that blue to the top corner??? - The best thing I've seen for at least a year!

Great idea for a story and was immediately interested but from when I first watched the trailer, I thought, why oh why do they hire English actors to play Ulstermen? Plenty of good Irish actors out there and Luke Treadaway just isn't up to it. Perhaps those with little Irish contact will not notice but it disappointed me from the start.

Apart from that it was quite entertaining and a glimpse into the start of snooker as we know it. I met Barry Hearn around 84 as a young kid. I wish I would've met Alex Higgins. Hope Alex is right and the miracle happens and Jimmy does finally become world champion!. I hope his daughter gets paid for this too. The film is about Alex and he's dead, she should get royalties

I thought the movie was very good, the first half brought some very good music tracks back to life. I seem to remember that in 1979 the snooker was on the BBC for hour after hour, and if memory recalls Higgins lost to Taylor during that championship. However 1979 was a dark year for most of the people in the U.K. when something happened that made the £ or $ sign more important than people. It took Higgins another ten years until 1982 to win the title again, which is where the film portrays him to be struggling as the best, but not the most commercialized snooker player. The films shows one of the main characters out to be a child of this greed for cash. Nearly forty years later I still have the same opinion as do nearly all my mates of that said person. Anyway good sounds, good story, (not sure if all snooker player portrayed sold their souls for cash) In short it appears that the title would of been more appropriate to be named as, (Barry Hearne is a CTNU)